'Attitudinal Barriers' Seen Hurting Youth Services in Calif.

"Attitudinal barriers'' such as the fear of losing power or turf are
the biggest roadblocks to improving the way that California agencies
serve children and families, a group studying the state's youth policy
concludes.

The Joint Task Force on Youth Policy was formed by the California
School Boards Association, the California State Association of
Counties, and the League of California Cities.

Its report addresses issues policymakers across the nation are
facing as they seek to make children's services more accessible,
cohesive, and prevention oriented.

The "inadequacy'' of the existing system, the report says, is
"particularly devastating'' in California, where a recent series of
fiscal crises has dovetailed with rising rates of poverty, crime, drug
use, child abuse, and other measures of "social and economic
hardship.''

The task force gathered information for the report from some 1,800
participants in 12 regional meetings it convened in the spring of 1992.
The meetings involved local education and government officials;
youth-agency staff members; and community and business leaders.

Gov. Pete Wilson chaired the meetings, which were co-sponsored by
his office of child development and education and the California State
University system.

The report calls for greater coordination among the child-serving
agencies at the local level as well as a comprehensive policy on
children and youths at the state level.

Rather than focusing on individual programs and gauging success by
dollars spent, it says, the new system should be structured around the
needs of children and families and evaluated on the basis of whether
such needs are met.

To spur the kind of coordination needed to make services more
comprehensive, reduce duplication, and fill unmet needs, the report
urges the state to allow greater flexibility in the use and mixing of
funds now allotted by program category. It says the state should
consider making "special-purpose grants that address an array of
services and allow the blending of funding streams.''

Apathy, Fear, and Turf

While highlighting other programmatic and legal barriers to serving
families better under the current system, the report says participants
in the regional meetings concluded that attitudinal barriers are "the
greatest impediment to change.''

The three major problems they cited were apathy, fear, and concern
about turf protection.

Apathy was defined as indifference, denial, hopelessness, or
reluctance to change, while fear was associated with concern about
losing a job or losing power, taking risks, or failing.

Turf issues included the inability to give up "ownership'' of a
problem or strategy, lack of will or ability to take on new tasks, lack
of knowledge or respect for others' roles, and being convinced "my way
is the best way.''

"The fact that turf is seen as a major obstacle to increasing
coordination of services to children and families would seem to be a
natural outcome of a system structured with rigid categorical services
and specialized service providers,'' the report concludes.

It recommends educating providers of various services about each
others' goals and responsibilities, providing incentives for
collaboration, and having service providers work on multi-disciplinary
teams.

In addition, it urges the development of a "shared vision'' across
agencies and the involvement of the community and parents in developing
policies and programs.

The report says education institutions should offer "cross
training'' to broaden the perspective of people pursuing education,
social work, and health careers and recommends retraining people in
those fields to refine their consensus-building, conflict-resolution,
problem-solving, and decisionmaking skills.

Single copies of the report, "Cutting Through the Red Tape: Meeting
the Needs of California's Children,'' are available for $9.95 each, and
multiple copies at lower rates, from the California School Boards
Association, Publication Sales Office, 1600 Beacon Blvd., West
Sacramento, Calif. 95691.

Vol. 12, Issue 26

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